elvis posed for some photo's backstage and let us interview him for our fanzine. spotted kim wilde walking round the guildhall. and the pogues supporting, what more could you ask for?
bronski's album 'the age of consent' was stuck on my turntable these days. the first openly gay band and i wanted to see them live. met them for the 1st time here, finally got to see tom robinson too.
i did it, left the island and flew to berlin. an exciting gig for many reasons. out in the big bad world on my own now. bronski beat were awesome this night.
marc almond turned up at the soundcheck as he was a rumoured guest. saw him rehearse 'i feel love' with bronski beat for the very first time and have pictures too.
had loved culture club for ages, still loved their music but this gig was so over-blown, all costume changes and no soul. we were miles back and i had to sneak my camera in. it wasn't worth it.
fresh from guesting with bronski beat, marc was back at the palais for a solo show. the first time we heard stuff from the forthcoming 'stories of johnny' album.
this gig almost never happened. everyone waiting for jimmy to arrive. turned out he had better things to do with his time, like a spot of cottaging when you should be on-stage.
saw prince collect his award flanked by that huge minder. tina turner, alison moyet, howard jones & bronski beat did pa's and ran amok with rose from strawberry switchblade. even kissed nick heyward!
i loved the sweet as a kid. all of them. the first band i wanted to know about every group member so seeing brian connollys version of sweet minus the others was always gonna be a no-no.
a totally unique venue at the time, it looked beautiful inside. not the best banshees gig though, one of the least memorable. i remember the party afterwards much better.
things were getting heated in the bronski camp. jimmy was about to quit and marc was in a mood. not the best time to be around. they pulled off a great performance though, i have it on video.
another marc almond gig, have some colour shots from this. seen marc almond so many times that this one doesn't fare too well. kind a blank but the pictures prove i was there, so there.
'grimly fiendish' was still being played on my turntable so i made the effort to finally get to see the damned live. they played the isle of wight when i was 13yrs old and i couldn't get in then.
jimmy unleashed his communards set-up for the first time. the highlight of the day was when divine floated up the thames on a huge barge. the sound was blown away in the wind. tacky.
a great show celebrating american independence day. lots of american flags, costume changes and naked flesh. perfect. 'walk like a man' had just been a hit for divine.
saw a tiny pic of these guys in 'the face' and had to photograph them. a cross between punk & glam. a naked skinhead jumped on-stage this night too. it was an old strip club. dirty & dingey.
this gig was cancelled after three fucking songs. gary twisted his ankle or did he break it? i remember turning around and seeing all three bananarama girls. i snapped their picture and they left.
took this opportunity to catch mari wilson in an intimate venue. her pop career was over and so was her beehive but her voice was better than ever. a torch-song evening.
another sputnik gig, the guys from emi were sniffing around backstage. a night for great photo's, on and off-stage. sputniks were at their best live these days
a sweaty, small club gig. this is how sputniks worked best. a frantic night and a bumpy ride back to london on top of all the equipment. worth every bruise though.
another great sputnik gig. lot's of great pictures too. martin certainly loved the camera, and mine loved him, and tony james, well he was always a star.
a gig in abbey road. fucking great idea. martin hired a great gold jacket for this show, like the one elvis wore in '56. footage of this gig is in their 'love missile f1-11' video.
the sisterhood turned into the mission some time after this gig. this was my first photo assignment for melody maker. billy duffy from the cult was a surprise guest too.
i joined the sputniks for the rest of the tour. took my cousin along who lost her shoe in the crowd. 'love missile f1-11' was in the top ten and everyone was going mad for a bit of sputnik.
i was travelling around with the sputniks in a tiny van for these dates. special branch showed up backstage, two girls had told tony they were having gun lessons & were gonna assassinate thatcher.
myself, neal x & ray began drinking at 10am.the crowd were so tame tonight, it made it feel boring. ray ripped the tampax machine from the wall to liven things up.
the same venue as featured in the movie 'letter to breznev'. martin changed the words on 'jayne mansfield' from 'hey jane mansfield superstar' to 'gay mike morton superstar'...fantastic.
it was madness being back in london. the guest list was massive and it was a pain just to get into this bloody gig. i let myself go and partied all night, well it was the last night of the tour.
this gig was in a building awaiting demolition. i recall this gig not being my cup of tea but my diary says otherwise. this was a job for melody maker.
the first time i'd ever noticed eartha kitt playing live so i thought i'd better check her out. loved it when she did old stuff like 'old fashioned girl' and 'the heel'.
this was billed as marilyn's first live appearance. boy george and his mother were also present. marilyn only played four songs but he looked beautiful. he was rather bad tempered with me later on.
covered this for melody maker. the reviewer wasn't impressed, he said the only flash thing about the evening was my camera! it was great to get some pictures of kim wilde though.
i'd seen joe live when 'steppin' out' was out and this time i hadn't heard from him in years. but he was still good but not great for a photographer. sorry joe.
gary crowley introduced this gig on a boat for a capital radio show. it was like seeing madness in their early days. sweaty, cramped and noisy. not what i'd expected.
i did this for melody maker. zodiac was new on the scene, he was like a sexy version of lemmy from motorhead. and he liked to flash his bits alot too. that was fine by me.
i queued up for 2hrs outside capital radio to get this ticket. a warm up gig for their farewell wembley date. a total teen-fest, screaming girls everywhere. got my camera past the heavy security too.
did this for melody maker too. was interested in primal scream and they were on top form. very different from the primal scream of today, they reminded me of the beatles.
sputniks under a false name for this one-off gig. martin got rid of his hair in favour of a funny pony-tail right out the top of his head. interesting.
had to sneak my camera into this one but was too far away to get anything any good. great to catch prince live though but i wasn't into 'parade' as much as his previous albums.
i got a great picture of gary at this gig which was used many times. unfortunately gary had a huge hairy belly. he would've hated it but i thought it was kinda sexy.
did this for record mirror. best of all, poly styrene took to the stage for a short set. also got pics of marco pirroni & pete wylie. bumped into marc almond too and philip salon painted my nails.
i was covering this for melody maker. joolz was a poet and stood in silence reciting her work. my camera sounded so noisy in the quiet studio & she kept glaring at me everytime i snapped.
it was the 'raisin' hell' tour & this was the hottest ticket in town. another job for mmaker. my best picture of the evening is a so far unpublished shot of ll cool j grabbing his genitalia.
my old mates were back doing a major london gig. this was filmed for the "sex bomb boogie" video single. emi bought pictures from me taken at this gig.
the tour manager was giving us photographers load of shit before-hand, sign this, you can't do this, you can't do that. we all nearly went home. i wouldn't have missed anything. total shite.
had always wanted to see lene lovich live. her voice was amazing. got great pictures too and remember her gulping litre bottles of evian. thomas dolby came on-stage too.